One of my favorite times of the day is when I settle in with my two young daughters for read-aloud time. For several years, we have been working our way through the Harry Potter series. I had read them all before, but it has been a delight to read them again with my girls, using as many voices as possible, and seeing the incredible story through their eyes.

It has also shared many secrets about teaching and living with me on this second reading, especially when it comes to Dumbledore. The way he interacts with Harry, fellow teachers, muggles, and various magical creatures has lessons for all of us -- especially teachers and parents. Whether you have read the Harry Potter series or not, there is wisdom from this character we can all learn from.

Researchers in Mexico have discovered a Pyramid that, according to initial measurements, is larger than the Great Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan. Initial excavations were done in 2010.

The Pyramid, 75 meters in height, was explored by specialists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) on the acropolis of Tonina, Chiapas, estimated to be around 1700 years old.

Emiliano Gallaga, director of the archaeological zone, explained that work has been done in the last two years, and by means of a “three-dimensional, researchers verified that in the northeastern part of the site, stands one of the largest construction in Mesoamerica, comparable in size only to great Mayan cities like Tikal and El Mirador in Guatemala.

Low Teacher Pay In South Dakota Drives Teachers Out.The AP (4/2) reports that one in three new teachers trained in South Dakota leave the state for work, in large part due to the state’s salaries, ranked last nationwide. The movement has led to a “teacher shortage,” according to Rob Monson, executive director of the School Administrators of South Dakota, and one he deems likely to continue as the number of teachers at retirement age increases compared to new staff.

Help Teaching is an excellent site for educators, parents, and others looking for educational resources such as quiz/test creators, online assessments, or worksheets/printables. These printables are for K-12 and cover a wide range of subjects.

Extensive training is the basis for giving teachers the autonomy to work the way they want. The result is a highly prized profession and an education system always near the top in international rankings

Always be reflective. There is no growth without reflection. I particularly like "you don't do what you're told." Yes, when you are told to adhere to the Common Core skills list, certainly listen, but design backward from them through the lens of your content.

We are trapped in a vicious cycle: we will need to grow 50% more food by 2050 to feed 9 billion people but agriculture, which is paradoxically vulnerable to climate change, generates 25% of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions that lead to climate change. The more we grow using conventional methods, the more we exacerbate the problem. It’s time for a climate-smart agriculture but first we must address a few man-made problems.

First, there is a frustrating lack of attention paid to agriculture in the current global climate talks leading up to the Paris conference later this year. By definition, food production affects all countries, rich and poor, and it is hard to imagine any effective post-Kyoto climate change agreement that ignores 25% of the problem. So, we need a climate change agreement where agriculture is a big part of the solution, and delivers a triple win: higher agricultural productivity to feed more people and raise the incomes of poor farmers - especially women, greater climate resilience, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Second, we still grow our food largely using 20th century technology - over 100 years old in the case of fertilizer production! We need more and better agricultural research to bring farming into the 21st century. Other sectors like energy have made great breakthroughs in remarkably short periods of time, but where is the “electric car” for agriculture? The Copenhagen Consensus concludes that agricultural research is one of the single most effective investments we could make to fight malnourishment. Therefore, we need more support for bodies like the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research that focus on crops and cropping systems that are of greatest importance to poor farmers and poor countries. Such research is a global public good that the private sector cannot be expected to deliver alone.

Third, agriculture, like other sectors, ‘wastes’ carbon because we don’t price it properly. Carbon pricing is an essential way to cut greenhouse gas emissions and lower climate risks. Whether through carbon markets, carbon taxes, or performance measures, a price on carbon can drive investment toward a greener agriculture, a cleaner economy and ultimately, more food for all.

Fourth, agriculture today consumes 70% of the world’s fresh water, and too much of it is wasted. We must become wiser about water, especially because of climate change. One example of better water management is in rice cultivation. Growing rice can use enormous quantities of water, but new farming techniques, like those developed by the CGIAR, can drastically reduce water use and also reduce the amount of methane from rice cultivation.

Hunger has many causes, including ignorance and injustice and violence, and there is no single solution that will guarantee that every person, every day, everywhere, has enough to eat. But, as incredulous as it sounds, even though one in nine people go hungry today, it is within our power to eliminate extreme poverty and hunger by 2030. We can build a better food system, based on climate smart agriculture that will grow more food, raise farmer incomes, and protect our land, water and biodiversity. And we can eliminate world hunger.

That is the conclusion of a new study published by researchers at NASA, which drew on satellite data to quantify the stresses on aquifers. The researchers found that over the decade-long study of the 37 major aquifers worldwide, 21 experienced a depletion of their water supply. Especially alarming was the study’s finding that the Indus Basin aquifer, which supplies much of India’s water supply, has depleted rapidly.

“The potential consequences are pretty scary,” NASA scientist Matthew Roddell, a lead author of the study, tells Quartz. “At some point those aquifers might run dry.”

To measure the water level changes, the researchers studied the gravitational orbit of NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite caused by the shifting of earth’s mass. Because water is one of the larger and constantly shifting masses on earth, this allowed them to measure changes to groundwater supplies.

The researchers found that California’s Central Valley aquifer was the most depleted of all aquifers in the US, because Californians have relied more heavily on drawing groundwater as rain water has dissipated during California’s long drought.

While the study detected the change in groundwater levels, it could not quantify the amount of water remaining in the aquifers. Rodell said this would require drilling into the aquifers themselves, which he supports doing. “We should be monitoring and quantifying how much water is in these aquifers like we do with oil,” he says.

Preserving water in aquifers is especially problematic in agricultural areas like India, which relies heavily on water-intensive rice farming. According to Rodell, over 68% of our water supply is used for agriculture. But unlike, say, water used to cool a power plant, water used in agriculture is not recyclable, Rodell explains. “The people who are using the water don’t necessarily recognize that it will ever run out. It is used as a resource that will last forever,” Rodell says. If we continue with our current consumption practices, hesays,”these people and those farmers that rely on that water won’t have it anymore.”

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